Many of you that frequent this area will recognize me as the newest, but perhaps lately most active moderator of this forum. You may have also noticed that there hasn't been much movement around here for a little while. That has been due to the transition that has been underway in the leadership of this site. In case you haven't heard, you can find out about that here.

I wanted to thank all of you active contributors for helping us shape and refine the suggestions that are currently going through the long and sometimes disheartening suggestions process. The users that contribute ideas, critique those ideas, and (more mundanely) help me sort through all of the suggestions and find similar previous topics have made my time here enjoyable and easier. Thank you.

For those of you that have discovered this forum as a result of the Revolution post linked to above, I say: Welcome! Site improvements do not always go through this process, but if you look at hundreds of suggestions that have been IMPLEMENTED, you will see that many, many site improvements do come from here.

But ... the process does certainly have its problems, as many users have pointed out in the past. I will address some of those, but first, I'd like to give folks an idea of what happens here in an ideal situation.

First, a user stops by either to make a suggestion. The "advanced search" function in the upper right corner of the screen can usually lead you to a discussion of some of the more commonly suggested features. New users may also want to briefly check out the Stickies, the Submitted Suggestions and the Stickies in the Archived Rejected Suggestions for some of the more commonly suggested ideas.

If an idea is truly novel, the user posts their idea using the New Topic button and following the form that is provided. If the idea turns out not to be as novel, usually someone will point it out and it ends up getting merged with a like topic where the relevant discussion can be found.

From there, other users comment on and critique the idea. Sometimes folks just stop by to say that they like or dislike the idea. While everyone appreciates a little bit of a glimpse into the reasoning behind the like/dislike, these short posts do help gauge how desirable the feature is. Other users will point out flaws or improvements.

It is not required that the original poster (OP) stick around to keep the topic alive, but it certainly helps. In my time here, I've asked that at least one user be able to keep on top of the idea and hone it into a better form before it moves very far. I figure if we can't find one person who is willing to stay on top of the discussion, then the feature probably isn't a big deal for the rest of the 15,000 users that are out there. The moderators, like myself, are able to edit the first post of a topic with new information, but most likely won't take the time to do all that work ourselves if there aren't many people that really want something implemented. In the best situation, the OP sticks around and incorporates improvements and fixes flaws over the course of the suggestion.

If a suggestion starts to receive a groundswell of support, then it is usually STICKIED to draw more attention to the idea. From there, if it can be further refined and continues to receive support it gets SUBMITTED. Finally, if it is feasible and the site Administrators are willing, the suggestion will get IMPLEMENTED.

This process can take a lot of time, unfortunately. My goals for this section of the site under the new leadership are:

To streamline this process

To increase communication between users and admin via the moderators here

To organize the old suggestions to make it easier for users to find relevant material regarding their suggestions

I figure it would be a good idea to let you all comment on what you'd like to see done around the Suggestions forum. So, this is an open thread to all of you frequent and new visitors to this section of the site. On behalf of the suggestions team, we welcome your feedback and look forward to playing our part in improving your experience on Conquer Club.

Please make sure that the developer goes through ALL of the accepted suggestions - there are some very good ones that don't require a lot of time that have been sitting in there for MORE THAN FIVE YEARS (so obviously, they're pretty buried). Unless you'd like me to go on a necro-bumping spree, of course...

...I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

Woodruff wrote:Please make sure that the developer goes through ALL of the accepted suggestions - there are some very good ones that don't require a lot of time that have been sitting in there for MORE THAN FIVE YEARS (so obviously, they're pretty buried). Unless you'd like me to go on a necro-bumping spree, of course...

If there's something you think is worth bumping, then bump it, as long as you're sure it deserves it. Don't go indiscriminately bumping stuff.

Woodruff wrote:Please make sure that the developer goes through ALL of the accepted suggestions - there are some very good ones that don't require a lot of time that have been sitting in there for MORE THAN FIVE YEARS (so obviously, they're pretty buried). Unless you'd like me to go on a necro-bumping spree, of course...

If there's something you think is worth bumping, then bump it, as long as you're sure it deserves it. Don't go indiscriminately bumping stuff.

Me? Indescriminate? Why, my good sir, I never!

...I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

Woodruff wrote:Please make sure that the developer goes through ALL of the accepted suggestions - there are some very good ones that don't require a lot of time that have been sitting in there for MORE THAN FIVE YEARS (so obviously, they're pretty buried). Unless you'd like me to go on a necro-bumping spree, of course...

If there's something you think is worth bumping, then bump it, as long as you're sure it deserves it. Don't go indiscriminately bumping stuff.

Keep in mind that if you bump a shitload of posts, you just end up burying some of them and some other worthy suggestions. I'd prefer that you add something to the conversation if you do bump, but I realize that's kind of hard to do with some of those that seem to be pretty well thought out. B

But in the spirit of what Dukasaur said, as long as I'm around no one is going to get in trouble for "necro-bumping" a suggestion. This is a little different than with other areas of this site that follow a bit more traditional forum rules. But I think it goes without saying that the whole point of suggestions makes it different.

That goes for rejected suggestions as well. There are tons in rejected that weren't given their due before just getting shuffled over there. If anyone wants to wade into that mess, go for it. And doing that is ALWAYS better than posting a new thread of an identical suggestion.

I have always thought that there should be a scoring system (maybe an optional one, maybe just a universal one) that awards points to someone other than the winner. It seems to me that in an 8-player game, the person who finishes second has earned some points. Maybe it stops there, or maybe it's based on how many rounds the game goes or points for the most eliminations (or any other criteria that makes sense). It just seems like winner take all doesn't accurately reflect the effort and gameplay of all the contests.

I'm not sure if I'm in the right thread. This thread is for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process. But I'm looking for a thread for suggestions on how to improve the the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process. What do you suggest?

Domicas wrote:I'm not sure if I'm in the right thread. This thread is for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process. But I'm looking for a thread for suggestions on how to improve the the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process. What do you suggest?

I don't understand what you're asking for.

You say you want a thread to improve the thread that improves the suggestions process?

This is an announcement (also a thread) about some updates in this forum. If you have suggestions on how we could improve the process, feel free to start a new thread, or PM them to anyone on the suggestions team (myself included).

My suggestion is that when a suggestion is made, the suggester should suggest his suggestion in a straightforward manner and the suggestee should consider if the suggestion was worth suggesting in the first place. If said suggestion suggests a worthy suggestion for how to improve the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process, then I would suggest that the suggestion in question has merit and is a worthwhile suggestion. If the aim of the suggestion is not an actual suggestion concerning how to improve the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process, then I would suggest that the suggestion has been posted in the wrong suggestion thread.

In other words, if the object of a suggestion suggests a suggestion suggesting suggestions worthy of a thread targeted at improving the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process, then suggesting said suggestion in the proper suggestion thread suggests that the suggester takes seriously his quest to suggest a worthwhile suggestion. Others might disagree...

Also, I suggest people make an effort to be clear in their attempts to communicate. People who write in a style that suggests they may be mentally impaired make it hard for the rest of us to figure out what the hell they're babbling on about.

This is something that has been discussed in the past, and I promise the idea hasn't been forgotten about. No promises about whether it will happen soon, though. The main problem is -- will the subforums justify their usage? If we split off into four subforums, I worry that they'll all die from inactivity.

Domicas wrote:My suggestion is that when a suggestion is made, the suggester should suggest his suggestion in a straightforward manner and the suggestee should consider if the suggestion was worth suggesting in the first place. If said suggestion suggests a worthy suggestion for how to improve the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process, then I would suggest that the suggestion in question has merit and is a worthwhile suggestion. If the aim of the suggestion is not an actual suggestion concerning how to improve the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process, then I would suggest that the suggestion has been posted in the wrong suggestion thread.

In other words, if the object of a suggestion suggests a suggestion suggesting suggestions worthy of a thread targeted at improving the thread for suggestions on how to improve the suggestion process, then suggesting said suggestion in the proper suggestion thread suggests that the suggester takes seriously his quest to suggest a worthwhile suggestion. Others might disagree...

Also, I suggest people make an effort to be clear in their attempts to communicate. People who write in a style that suggests they may be mentally impaired make it hard for the rest of us to figure out what the hell they're babbling on about.

This is something that has been discussed in the past, and I promise the idea hasn't been forgotten about. No promises about whether it will happen soon, though. The main problem is -- will the subforums justify their usage? If we split off into four subforums, I worry that they'll all die from inactivity.

Perhaps Topic Icons can be used similar to the Foundry and Create/Join Tourney pages... That'll keep them all in the same forum but will allow for someone to easily pick out the different types of suggestions.

This is something that has been discussed in the past, and I promise the idea hasn't been forgotten about. No promises about whether it will happen soon, though. The main problem is -- will the subforums justify their usage? If we split off into four subforums, I worry that they'll all die from inactivity.

Perhaps Topic Icons can be used similar to the Foundry and Create/Join Tourney pages... That'll keep them all in the same forum but will allow for someone to easily pick out the different types of suggestions.

Yes, that's something we've been discussing recently. It's the solution I would like to see implemented; it just requires coordination with the webmaster and the tech team to see how easy it would be to implement for us. We'll be keeping in touch regarding this.

Definitely under consideration. Metsfan and I have had a little bit of discussion on where we'd like to see this forum go. Btw, welcome to Metsfan to the team! I'm sure you've all seen him around doing all kinds of awesome stuff and he's been just as helpful behind the scenes as we try to figure out how to get some of your ideas IMPLEMENTED!

This is something that has been discussed in the past, and I promise the idea hasn't been forgotten about. No promises about whether it will happen soon, though. The main problem is -- will the subforums justify their usage? If we split off into four subforums, I worry that they'll all die from inactivity.

Perhaps Topic Icons can be used similar to the Foundry and Create/Join Tourney pages... That'll keep them all in the same forum but will allow for someone to easily pick out the different types of suggestions.

Yes, that's something we've been discussing recently. It's the solution I would like to see implemented; it just requires coordination with the webmaster and the tech team to see how easy it would be to implement for us. We'll be keeping in touch regarding this.